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McGrath Airport (PAMC/MCG) is a state-owned, public-use aerodrome serving the community of McGrath in Alaska's remote Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, roughly a tenth of a mile from the town centre. Operated by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Central Region, it began life as McGrath Army Airbase and today functions as a busy air-taxi and bush-flying hub for a scattering of surrounding villages. Its long, lit, hard-surfaced main runway with an ILS approach makes it a notable instrument-capable field amid otherwise sparse interior Alaska infrastructure.
McGrath Airport is a state-owned public-use airport at McGrath, a small community in Alaska's Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, operated by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Central Region. It began as McGrath Army Airbase before being converted to civilian use, and today it is predominantly an air-taxi base, with all locally based aircraft being single-engine types. For a visiting sim pilot it offers an interesting mix of a long lit hard-surface runway with an ILS approach alongside a much shorter unlit gravel/dirt strip, set in classic interior-Alaska bush-flying country.
McGrath lies in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area of interior Alaska, with the airport situated immediately adjacent to the town, about a tenth of a mile from its centre. No specific controlled airspace class or nearby control zones are noted in available sources, consistent with the airport's remote, largely uncontrolled interior Alaska setting.
McGrath has two physical runways. The main runway, 16/34, is a hard-surfaced, lit strip approximately 5,380 feet long, with an ILS approach serving runway 16. The secondary runway, 05/23, is a shorter dirt/gravel strip of about 1,997 feet, unlit and without instrument approach aids.
Runway 16 is served by an ILS instrument approach, making McGrath one of the more capable interior Alaska fields for instrument arrivals. Detailed communication frequencies and callsign information are not available from current aeronautical data sources.
No specific published joining or circuit procedures, circuit heights, or noise abatement restrictions are available in current sources.
No specific visual reference points or local landmarks for joining are documented in available sources.
McGrath Airport was formerly operated as McGrath Army Airbase before its conversion to a state-owned public-use civilian airport. On 3 July 1970, a Douglas C-47 (registration N154R) operated by Reeder Flying Service crashed on takeoff while on a domestic passenger flight to Galena Airport; seven of the 27 people aboard were killed. The airport has since been classified by the Federal Aviation Administration as a non-primary commercial service airport within the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems.
McGrath remains an active regional hub, handling around 11,000 aircraft operations a year, roughly 82 percent air taxi and 18 percent general aviation, with about ten based aircraft, all single-engine. Scheduled passenger service has included Alaska Air Transit flights to Anchorage-Merrill Field and Tanana Air Service flights to Nikolai and Takotna. Aviation fuel, both 100LL avgas and Jet A, is available on a 24-hour self-serve basis on the airport ramp. No sim scenery availability is noted in current sources.
